Nehemiah 6-Fear Is A Liar

As we begin this morning, go ahead and turn in your copies of God’s Word to Nehemiah 6, that is page 508 in the Pew Bibles. We will read part of the chapter shortly.

In last weeks message in Nehemiah 5: Titled-The Tale of Two Moralities, we compared The Morality of the Selfish with The Morality of the Godly. In looking at The Morality of the Selfish we noted The Destructive Power of Greed. Selfish greed prompted the nobles and the wealthy to violate the Law God gave through Moses and loan their fellow Jews money and then charge exorbitant amounts of interest and even led them to sell their fellow Jews into slavery. We saw that they took advantage of the poor to pad their own pockets and make themselves rich.

In looking at The Morality of the Godly we saw Nehemiah use his own money to purchase the freedom of Jews that had been enslaved, loan them interest free so they could eat and take care of their families. He was constantly putting the needs of others ahead of his own needs. We noted that: Moral courage demands an unshakable commitment to confront wrong doing. We went on to note that : Moral courage demands an unselfish commitment to serve others, which was continually patterned for us by Nehemiah. And lastly we saw that: Moral courage demands an unwavering commitment to please God.

In looking at the life of Nehemiah it has been abundantly clear that Nehemiah’s constant desire was to live a life of complete devotion to God. That is why he behaved the way he behaved, that is why he constantly put the needs of others ahead of his own needs. That is why he left the luxuries of the Palace in Persia to return to a dilapidated city 800+ miles from where he was raised to lead a rebuilding effort with a work crew that didn’t even know how to swing a hammer. One thing to note when we look at the type of life Nehemiah lived, the type of example he set was this, Nehemiah didn’t do these things for the applause of men, he didn’t do it to gain their respect or admiration, he did it because with all his heart he wanted to live a life pleasing to God. That was it, no other reason.

We are to imitate Nehemiah in the way we live our lives and as we do the power of God will be unleashed in our life as individuals and as a church family. That will be very clear this morning as we look at Nehemiah chapter 6, especially as we close out the chapter.

Will you stand this morning for the reading of God’s Word? We will be reading the first 9 verses of Nehemiah 6: “Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.”

While fear or being afraid is mentioned only 3 times in these verses, the truth is, fear is the underlining theme of these verses. At the start of chapter 6 the enemies of Judah realize that if they don’t act quickly and decisively, they will loose control of the region. Nehemiah has proven to be such a strong leader that they now know that in order to win against the Jews, they need to take Nehemiah out of the picture.

You may have heard the phrase, “Cut the head off the snake and the snake will die”. Well this is generally a military phrase meaning, if you take out the leader, the battle is yours. Well when it came to the Jews, Nehemiah was the head of the snake. Up until Nehemiah came to Jerusalem, Sanballat and his crew needed only to verbally attack the Jews to get them to stop their rebuilding efforts, but with Nehemiah on the scene, the Jews kept right on building and here they were almost done with the wall around Jerusalem.

What we see in these verses is their attempt to cut off the head of the snake and instill fear into the hearts of the Jews. Fear had proven to be their most powerful weapon.

To this day, Fear is often times Satan’s most powerful weapon in the life of the believer. He frequently uses it to stop us in our tracks.

As we look at our passage this morning, one of the first things we all need to understand is: Next Slide

Fear is Not Your Friend and You will either deal with it or it will deal with you.

Did you know that 95 % of those things you have freaked out about over the years never even happen? 95 % of those things you have feared were never even real and yet often times you were moved by emotion and you responded to that emotion. And maybe even you took that step and allowed fear to control your life. The Fact of the matter is: Next Slide

Fear is not meant to be managed, it is meant to be defeated.

As we look at chapter 6 in Nehemiah, we see that there were 3 things that fear was seeking to do in the life of Nehemiah and the Jews to stop them in their tracks, and fear is seeking to do those same 3 things in our life as well and in our families life, and in the of the church.

The first thing that fear is seeking to do is: Next Slides

Fears Desire is to Take You Out. Vs. 1-4, Isaiah 41:10

In the first 4 verses we read:

“Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.”

By the way, I want you to take note of Nehemiah’s reply “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” We will look more at it later.

Now, what you want to picture here is that the job is now somewhere between 95-98% completed. All that is left is the doors and gates. Now, just to give you a picture of the importance of doors and gates, let me give you a personal example.

On one of my normal cycling routes that I take around here is one that takes me by a home that has 2 or 3 large Rottweilers. The dogs are not always out but when they are, the second they see me they take off the long driveway towards the entryway of the property. As I approach the house, before I see any sign of the dogs I am looking ahead to see if the gate is open. You see if the gate is closed, which it is the vast majority of the time, even if the dogs are out, I have nothing to worry about because they have no way of getting around the gate. But if the gate is open, I immediately pick up the pace, I want to be doing 25mph or faster when I get to the open gate because at that speed I can outrun the dogs. The gate provides safety and security. It did for the Nation of Judah as well.

So, as we look at this mornings passage, we see that this is the last chance that Sanballat and his motley crew have of stopping the rebuilding effort. Once the gates and doors are hung, there is little they can do to hurt the Jews. As a result we see their effort to get Nehemiah to leave the work for a meeting with them.

As you look at the passage, understand something here, they had no intention of meeting with Nehemiah. This was nothing more than a plot to get him to a place where they could take him out of the picture. Their desire was to remove the head of the snake. They were certain that if he was out of the picture the gates and doors would never be hung.

By the way, this attack is a very ingenious attack. Nehemiah could have easily looked at their ploy and thought, “Finally, no more insults, they actually want to meet with me and come up with a plan so we can work together.” But Nehemiah had learned to never be lead by his emotions, to never act hastily, to always seek the will of God before changing course, and these men wanted him to stop what he was doing, change course and meet with them. You see, Nehemiah understood that: Next Slide

Fears Desire is to Take You Out.

Fear wants control

If they rally wanted to form an alliance, why were they asking him to stop what he was doing and meet them on their turf? Why didn’t they stop what they were doing and come to him? He understood that they wanted to take control of the situation. Next Slide

Fears Desire is to Take You Out.

Fear wants control

Fear wants to Overwhelm

Look, 4 times these guys sent the same exact message to Nehemiah, they wanted to overwhelm him to the point that he would finally give in. This is what Satan likes to do with us when it comes to fear. He keeps coming and coming and coming until we finally just give in and succumb to the pressure and leave the safety and security of what we know God wants us to do. They wanted Nehemiah to leave the safety and security of the walls and the presence of the people of God to come to them, becuase not only does ; Next Slide

Fears Desire is to Take You Out.

Fear wants control

Fear wants to Overwhelm, Consume.

Fear also wants to consume us:

Listen,

Fear doesn’t just want a piece of you, fear wants all of you.

Fear wants to eat you up, fear wants to consume you. Fear often times so overwhelms and consumes us that it compels us to do the exact opposite of what we should do. Because: Next Slide

Fears Desire is to Take You Out.

Fear wants control

Fear wants to Overwhelm, Consume and Destroy.

Fears desire is to destroy you. It wants to take away everything that God has given to you. I love this quote!;

God gives with the one Hand what fear takes away with the other.

Look God give promises, God gives blessings, God gives security in Him, God has incredible desires for you as you lean on Him. And if you give in to fear, it’s like the devil one by one takes these things from God out of your life until you are overwhelmed, consumed and destroyed by fear.

Perhaps some of you may be thinking right now, I don’t know if God can ever accomplish a great work in me I struggle so much with fear. Did you know that some of the greatest leaders in Scripture were told directly by God not to fear? People like; Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Esther, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, Paul & Mary (not the band from the 60’s and 70’s) the rest of the Disciples, they were all exhorted not to fear. These people were just like you and me, they struggled with fear.

By the way, this is the reason why there is one additional handout in your bulletin today. I have included a list of passages from Scripture that deal specifically with promises of God regarding fear. Keep in mind that this is just a partial list!

Thankfully in the life of Nehemiah we see that he was wise enough not to walk into the trap created by fear. Because he knew that:

Fear will never produce in your life the will of God.

You see Nehemiah understood what we read in Isaiah 41:10: Next Slide

Isaiah 41:10 ESV

10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Follow Nehemiah’s lead, he was so lazar focused on doing the work of God that he wasn’t about to stop until he heard directly from God. He knew God would uphold him with His righteous right Hand.

So, we have seen that Fear Wants to take us out, now let’s look at the next thing that fear wants to do: Next Slides

Fears Desire is to Make You Out. Vs. 5-9, Isaiah 43:1, Proverbs 29:25

In verses 5-7 we read “5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.”

Notice the change in tactic here. Sanballat now sends an open letter. The custom of that day was similar to what we do now in government circles, important communications between government officials was sent via sealed letters. Anytime something was sent unsealed it meant that the official wanted this information leaked to others. Sanballat here is seeking to make Nehemiah something he wasn’t. In these verses fear wants to ruin his reputation.

I want you to notice Nehemiah’s response: “8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.”

Nehemiah didn’t seek to defend himself. He didn’t defend his reputation. By the way, don’t forget, Nehemiah had an in with the king that none of these men had. For years he was one of the kings closest confidants. The king trusted him, depended on him. Sent him back to Jerusalem with money, guards and a letter from the king. Very likely Nehemiah could have his handled this on his own, could have stopped doing the work of God and contacted the king to have these guys removed. But why approach the King of Persia when you can approach the King of the Universe.

Far to frequently we try to handle these things on our own instead of bringing them before the King of the Universe. Nehemiah brought this accusation before the throne of the Almighty.

Nehemiah handled these false accusations with prayer not a defence. You know

Fear lies to you about you.

Fear is always telling you things about yourself that are not true. Because fear wants you to stop doing the work of God to step out and defend yourself. Nehemiah didn’t do that, he just brought it before God.

I have to be honest with you, had Nehemiah stopped what he was doing to defend himself I would have understood. These men were trying to destroy him by destroying his reputation. I could have easily understood Nehemiah defending himself here, I mean you work hard to maintain a good reputation. But Nehemiah understood that if he stopped what he was doing to defend his reputation that is all he would be doing from that day forward. Instead he stayed razor focused on doing the work of God and left the defense of his reputation in God’s hand. He knew that God was far better equipped to defend him than he himself was!

He knew these guys were seeking to weaken his hands from doing the work of God so he went to the throne with a simple prayer; “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.”

You know what this prayer tells me about Nehemiah? It tells me that finally after all these attacks, these guys were getting to him. His strength to do the work of God was beginning to weaken. So he goes onto his knees before the Almighty and says’ Oh God please strengthen my hands!

Has that ever happened to you? Has the unrelenting attacks of the enemy ever gotten to the point with you that you were ready to just throw in the towel and quit?

Don’t! Don’t give in to the attacks, follow the lead of Nehemiah and take it to the throne of the Almighty. Asking God to strengthen your hands to do His work.

that’s what Nehemiah did. He wasn’t about to be overcome with fear and stop to defend himself because he knew Who he belonged to.

I love what Isaiah writes in Isaiah 43:1; Next Slide

Isaiah 43:1 ESV

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

Isaiah writes that we belong to God, He knows us and has called us by name. Think about that for a moment. The God of heaven literally knows your name!

So here is the lie;

The lie says, “I’m not good enough”-God’s Word declares, “I belong to God!”

The lie says, “I’m not beautiful enough”-God’s Word declares, “I am beautiful in the Eyes of God!”

The lie says, “I’m not strong enough”-God’s Word declares, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!”

The lie says, “I’m not loved”-God’s Word declares, “I’m loved by God with an everlasting love!”

The lie says, “No one cares…I don’t matter”-God’s Word declares, “God cares, I matter to Him. He He say’s Himself that I am His!”

That is how you deal with the lies.

Nehemiah stayed in the safe place. He wasn’t lured out by the lies of the enemy. He

Believed, He Trusted, and he Obeyed, he didn’t stop the work of God.

For us the safe place is the place of believing it is the place of trusting and it is the place of obeying. In Proverbs 29:25 we read: Next Slide

Proverbs 29:25 ESV

25 The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Nehemiah trusted in the Lord, he realized that that was the only place of safety. You see:

Fear flourishes where faith is lacking.

So far we have looked at the fear trying to Take Nehemiah out, we have seen fear trying to make him out to be something he was not. Now we see that: Next Slide

Fears Desire is to Fake You Out. Vs. 10-14, Mark 15:29-32

In verses 10-14 we read; “10 Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” 11 But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” 12 And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.13 For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. 14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.”

I won’t go into a lot of details on this section. Last week we looked at how often times the enemies most effective attack comes from with in the family of God. That is what appears to be taking place right here. All we know of Shemaiah is that he is a false prophet who was paid by Tobiah and Sanballat to lie to Nehemiah.

You know what gave it away to Nehemiah? The give away was in verse 10. You see when we read that he said to Nehemiah “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple”. The place Shemaiah was trying to get Nehemiah to go with him was The Holy Place in the Temple. Nehemiah knew the Word of God well and he knew that only the priests were permitted to enter the Holy Place. He knew it was never the will of God to go against what is clearly written in His word.

Let me repeat this to you this morning:

It is never the will of God to go against what is clearly written in His word.

Fear will try to Fake You Out, and may even use someone you thought was a follower of Christ to get you to go against what you know to be God’s will for your life. Don’t give in, stay the course. Keep doing the work God has called you to do.

To close out this morning I wanted to go back to something from the very beginning this morning that I said we would get beck to. You will see it in Nehemiah’s reply to his enemies in verse 3. There we read that Nehemiah said;

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

The enemy wanted Nehemiah to stop doing the work of God. That has always been the enemies desire.

I want you to fast forward in Scripture to a little more than 400 years into the future to another time the enemy sought to end the work of God.

You will find this in the Mark 15:29-32. This is page 1085 in the Pew Bibles.

“9 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.”

We see that Jesus answer from the cross was the same as Nehemiah’s in Nehemiah 6:3